The ranks of high school graduates in Greene County grew by 102 last weekend, as both high schools held commencement ceremonies.
Eleven seniors graduated in the Paton-Churdan class of 2018. Valedictorian was Madisyn Behrens and salutatorian was Jake Berns. Marilyn Tilley, who has been children’s librarian at the Churdan public library since the classmates were very young, was speaker at the Saturday afternoon ceremony.
Ninety-one students comprised the Greene County class of 2018. Class president Regan Lamoureux made remarks and Peg Raney was guest speaker. Emily Bettey was salutatorian and co-valedictorians were Lamoureux and Haley Hall.
During the ceremony, principal Brian Phillips presented a gold cord to Nathan Kennedy, who was inadvertently left off the list prior to the Awards Night May 15. Phillips apologized and noted that Kennedy had more than surpassed the required 3.0 grade point average.
Phillips also presented gold cords to 11 students who didn’t receive them at the Awards Night because until their third trimester grades were calculated, they hadn’t earned the required grade point average. Receiving gold cords Sunday were Thomas Dugan, Travis Gierstorf, Charles Gunn, Kristen Hicks, Jeremiah Howell, Brandy Kirk, Logan Lawson, Manuel Perez Nunez, Connor Sims, Abbie Sparks and Joe Towers.
Phillips told GCNO after the ceremony that he was happy to see the students studying all the way to the end of the year and that the school will continue to use all three trimesters in figuring graduation honors. Previously, the last trimester was not part of the calculation.
In all, 67 of the 91 graduates (73.6 percent) had a grade point average of 3.0 or better.
